Too much money, not enough dope

 h/t Iowahawk

Obama policies causing gas prices to skyrocket, again

You wouldn't know it from following our local media, but gas prices in our neck of the Finger Lakes have been skyrocketing.  Once again, we don't see reporters repeating their Bush-era routine of of harassing motorists at the Valero pump, asking them if they've had to give up food to afford fuel.  However, way downstate, word has been leaking out.

Pete Richardson of Wappingers Falls said he spends roughly $94 a week filling up his 2010 GMC Terrain.

“I’m obviously not happy about (gas prices) because it constrains my family and what we can do together,” he said.

Richardson, 32, said it’s frustrating with the economic situation that employees aren’t making more but are being asked to pay more.

One can only hope Mr. Richardson will remember his frustration when he enters the voting booth this November.  Perhaps the crushing increase in energy prices my not bode well for the incumbent regime's reelection prospects.

Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said pump prices will be part of their political messaging, alongside other staples like jobs data. “We are going to be talking about every economic factor,” she said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, meanwhile, vows to hit vulnerable Senate Democrats – such as Claire McCaskill (Mo.) – and Obama over the prices.

“The NRSC fully intends to highlight the disastrous effects President Obama’s EPA has had on our nation’s energy prices including their rejection of the Keystone Pipeline,” said spokesman Lance Trover.

Unlike corruption at the Export-Import Bank, gas prices are an issue that most voters can instantly understand.  Let's see if the Republicans can can make the easy shots.

Hilltop

Maxfield  Parrish, 1926.

Tolls to be suspended on holidays

Weedsport?  No, Zhejiang.

Finally, some relief for overtaxed residents:  tolls will be suspended on national holidays!

Millionaires Andy Cuomo and Howie Milstein will not be able to take the political credit, however.  The toll-free holiday policy will be implemented in China, not on the Thruway.  New Yorkers will continue to pay.

Hello Mary Lou

Ricky Nelson on the Ozzie and Harriet TV show, 1961.  Mary Lou stirs a memory from You Tube commenter osterclipper1:

I was in the US NAVY(May 5 1961) and we were waiting to pluck Alan B. Shepard from the water and bring him and his ("Freedom 7 space capsule) aboard the carrier--USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN CVS 39...

Channel 15 misses the point

Long line at Phoenix Chick-fil-A today

Phoenix, AZ's Channel 15 explains that today's nationwide Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is about opposition to gay marriage.

The row over same-sex marriage could see thousands of Christians flocking to Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, while same-sex couples will turn up at the fast-food chain Friday for public displays of affection.

Both events are intended as mass shows of support by people on both sides of the marriage issue and mark the latest round in a long-standing beef that gay and lesbian rights groups have with Chick-fil-A's leadership, which has openly espoused biblical values, not only in its operating principles, but in its conservative definition of family as well.

Sure, some of the folks standing on line in the desert sun for hours, just to buy a chicken sandwich, may be opposed same sex marriage, just as Barry Obama was, up until a couple of weeks ago.  But we believe most of the sweltering customers are there today to protest government officials unconstitutionally using state power to punish a guy whose personal beliefs differ from those of the politicians' core supporters.  And, of course, to score a tasty and affordable lunch.

Update:  Readers of Ithaca' own  Legal Insurrection are flooding the blog with photos  of Chic-fil-As around the country.  Here's an amazing video.

Auburn IDA denies developer subsidy

Help a fella pay his country club dues?

In a rare occurrence in the Finger Lakes, an  Industrial Development Authority has declined to dish out taxpayer cash to a tin cup rattling developer.

On Tuesday, the Auburn Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to deny a payment in lieu of taxes request by Calamar Construction, a Wheatfield-based company planning a $9.3 million independent senior housing complex.

"I don't believe in PILOTs for residential at all," AIDA board member and City Councilor Matthew Smith said. "There aren't going to be jobs, and it's a severe cause of market distortion."

Smith said if the project was needed and profitable it would be built without public assistance.

We've more than once seen this type of well-funded developer, who typically comes from a government regulatory background, bully local officials into  submission, so Auburn's decision is a breath of non-subsidized fresh air.  Next step:  get rid of all the IDAs and give their budgets back to the taxpayers.  

More here and here.